OCTOBER RECAP: Top 3 Amazon Seller Updates

1. Amazon Premium A+ Content - Upgrade Your Branded Content For *Free*

Amazon is back with an update for your listings’ visual content! The newest edition of A+ Content (formerly known as Enhanced Brand Content) offers new ways to upgrade your listings. 

Premium A+ Content takes up almost double the size of Basic A+, allowing for more details within your graphics. It also gives room for more modules, by a lot. In addition to the standard graphics, videos can now be integrated into your detail pages, along with a clickable Q&A, hover hotspots, carousels, testimonials, and more; making listings more interactive than ever. 

As with Basic A+ Content, a Seller is required to have Brand Registry for the ASINs they want Premium A+ applied to. To be eligible to add Premium to a listing, an ASIN must already have a Brand Story applied. A Seller also needs to have 15 previously approved A+ Content project submissions within the last 12 months. This shows Amazon that as a Seller, you have a history of adhering to guidelines. 

Access to these modules is not something that is automatically implemented, though. Amazon goes through a monthly review and handpicks Sellers to bring into this promotion. Chosen Sellers will be reached out to by Amazon, letting them know that they qualify. 
Premium A+ Content is currently in the midst of a promotional period, where the use comes at zero cost, and there has been no word as to when this promotional period will end. Due to the steep price point, this is your sign to take advantage as soon as possible. 
Once this promotional period comes to an end, you will no longer be able to add these modules to ASINs that did not previously have access during the promotional period. This being said, your products that already had Premium applied to it, will retain their new modules and you will still be eligible to make updates as you please. You just will not be able to apply Premium to any new products you plan to add in the future, without paying the hefty fees. 

Implementing these new interactive modules has already proven to have an even higher sales rate than listings that have Basic A+ Content, boosting it by 5-12%. Utilizing these new modules enhance the customer experience and their confidence in your product, and brand as a whole. 

Source: Amazon Sellers Forum

2. Amazon Vine Program - 50% Until October 31st

As we head into the holiday season, you can enjoy the benefits of the Amazon Vine program at a discounted rate of $100 per parent ASIN enrollment (50% savings) until October 31, 2022.

Whether you are a new brand owner or launching a new product, Amazon Vine can help you get your first product reviews from a community of unbiased and insightful reviewers.

Reviews give customers insight into the quality and reliability of your products, and help them make an informed purchase decision. Participating in Amazon Vine can help boost sales up to 19%* on new or slow-moving products.

Once you receive your first Vine review, the fee discount will apply to the Vine Enrollment Fee charge on the Manage your Payments page on Seller Central. You will not be charged an enrollment fee if your product receives no reviews, or if its first Vine review is published more than 90 days after the enrollment date.

*Amazon conducted studies to measure the current performance of products that have Vine reviews. On an average, a sales lift is observed from the Vine reviews. This study of Vine is based on internal research conducted by Amazon and is not a guarantee of future sales.

Note: This offer only applies to products enrolled in the US store.

Source: Amazon Sellers Forum

3. Amazon Tailored Audiences - Custom Email Marketing

With Tailored Audiences, brands can now engage customers who have purchased from your brand in the past. Through the free tool’s easy-to-use campaign templates and customer segmenting capabilities, you can reach out to select customers through email marketing to inform them of new products, offer deals, and inspire repeat purchases.

As of September 2022, we are testing Tailored Audiences in a beta program (in Seller Central, it’s located under Brands > Customer Engagement), with plans to make it available soon to all U.S. sellers who have become a brand registered with customers in the last 12 months. Tailored Audiences will be available as part of the Customer Engagement tool in Seller Central.

This goes along with any exposure being better than none. If you show more about your brand and the company behind it, there will be more for your audience to talk about and share with others. 

4 customer groups you can engage with Tailored Audiences

• Expand beyond brand followers when sending free email marketing campaigns and reach these three audiences who have already purchased products from your Amazon store:

• Repeat Customers: Customers who have ordered your brand’s products more than once in the last 12 months

• High-Spend Customers: The highest spending 25% of your brand’s customers in the last 12 months

• Recent Customers: The most recent 20% of customers who have purchased from your brand

Source: sell.amazon.com

4. What Does This Mean For Amazon Sellers in Q4 and Beyond?

Amazon is changing swiftly and reinforcing brand features heading into 2023. These three major updates are just a piece of the sweeping updates coming up for Sellers. Amazon is testing becoming a social media platform, an email provider, and continuing their push to build serious brands through third party vendors. 

If you're anything like our team, you're already solidly into your Q4 strategy and looking ahead to 2023. With that said, content is becoming even more important that ever. If you're lacking A+ or using old content, you're going to be punished by brands that are investing heavily into a serious digital presence. Premium A+ brings so many new features to the table and seems to be a testing ground for future updates to Amazon stores and product pages. 

My quick suggestions are to A) Utilize Vine ASAP B) Test out email marketing (least excited about this feature) and C) Build out Premium A+ immediately!  If you have access to anything Amazon provides early, take advantage. For 10 years we've seen that early adopters and heavy investors see the biggest ROI before everyone else jumps in and dilutes the space. 

As always, if you need help building creatives or driving traffic, let's have a quick chat.